Partnership Overview: Arizona Financial Credit Union (AZFCU) has partnered with NCR Atleos to upgrade its ATM network and self-service banking options. Current Status: AZFCU, headquartered in Phoenix with $3.3 billion in assets, manages approximately 30,000 ATMs across the US and is part of Co-op Solution’s shared branch network, providing access to 5,000 physical credit union locations for its 165,000 members. Need for Upgrade: Many of AZFCU’s ATMs were reaching the end of their life cycle, prompting the credit union to seek a new technology partner. Solution Selection: AZFCU opte ..read more

Santander’s Expansion Plans: Spanish banking group Santander intends to launch its digital banking subsidiary Openbank in the United States later this year. Openbank’s Offerings: Openbank, established in 1995, offers a range of digital financial services, including current accounts, lending, mortgages, and open deposits. Expansion Strategy: With €18 billion in deposits, Santander plans to debut Openbank in the US market in the second half of the year, alongside a launch in Mexico within the same timeframe. Previous Expansions: Openbank expanded beyond Spain to Germany, Portugal, an ..read more

Humane AI raised more than $230 million before it even shipped a product. And when it finally released its Ai Pin — which costs $699 plus a $24 monthly subscription — pretty much every tech reviewer came to the same disappointing realization: This much-hyped product, which promises to disrupt the smartphone’s dominance, is not very good. Yet some onlookers are declaring that Marques Brownlee, the hugely popular YouTuber known as MKBHD, will be single-handedly responsible if the company eventually fails. Soon after Humane AI dropped its long-awaited product, the conversation evolved away from ..read more

Nuvei’s Licence Grant: Nuvei, a Canadian payment technology company, has been granted a major payment institution (MPI) licence by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Licence Details: The licence allows Nuvei’s regional entity, Nuvei Singapore Pte Ltd., to offer three categories of payment services in Singapore: domestic money transfers, merchant acquisition services, and international money transfers. Expansion Plans in APAC: This licence acquisition fuels Nuvei’s planned expansion into local markets across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Service Offerings: Nuvei aims to pr ..read more

Acquisition by Empower Finance: Empower Finance, a US-based credit underwriter, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Petal, a credit card and financial tech enterprise. Deal Details: The acquisition of Petal by Empower Finance is set to be finalized later this quarter for an undisclosed sum. Broadening Product Offerings: This acquisition will expand Empower’s product offerings to include the credit card category within the US market. Petal’s Background: Petal, founded in 2016, offers access to Visa credit cards without requiring a credit score, using open banking data ..read more

Artificial intelligence has been in the crosshairs of governments over how it might be misused for fraud, disinformation and other malicious online activity. Now, a U.K. regulator wants to explore how AI is used on the other side: in the fight against malicious content involving children. Ofcom, the regulator charged with enforcing the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, plans to launch a consultation on how AI and other automated tools are used today, and can be used in the future, to proactively detect and remove illegal content online, specifically to protect children from harmful content and to ide ..read more

Meta has released the latest entry in its Llama series of open generative AI models: Llama 3. Or, more accurately, the company has debuted two models in its new Llama 3 family, with the rest to come at an unspecified future date. Meta describes the new models — Llama 3 8B, which contains 8 billion parameters, and Llama 3 70B, which contains 70 billion parameters — as a “major leap” compared to the previous-gen Llama models, Llama 2 8B and Llama 2 70B, performance-wise. (Parameters essentially define the skill of an AI model on a problem, like analyzing and generating text; higher-paramet ..read more

Atlas lies motionless in a prone position atop interlocking gym mats. The only soundtrack is the whirring of an electric motor. It’s not quiet, exactly, but it’s nothing compared to the hydraulic jerks of its ancestors. As the camera pans around the robot’s back, its legs bend at the knees. It’s a natural movement, at first, before crossing into an uncanny realm, like something out of a Sam Raimi movie. The robot, which appeared to be lying on its back, has effectively switched positions with this clever bit of leg rotation. As Atlas fully stands, it does so with its back to the camera. Now t ..read more

After years of easy money, the AI industry is facing a reckoning. A new report from Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), which studies AI trends, found that global investment in AI fell for the second year in a row in 2023. Both private investment — that is, investments in startups from VCs — and corporate investment — mergers and acquisitions — in the AI industry were on the downswing in 2023 versus the year prior, according to the report, which cites data from market intelligence firm Quid. AI-related mergers and acquisitions fell from $117.16 billion in 20 ..read more

Generative AI, which can create and analyze images, text, audio, videos and more, is increasingly making its way into healthcare, pushed by both Big Tech firms and startups alike. Google Cloud, Google’s cloud services and products division, is collaborating with Highmark Health, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit healthcare company, on generative AI tools designed to personalize the patient intake experience. Amazon’s AWS division says it’s working with unnamed customers on a way to use generative AI to analyze medical databases for “social determinants of health.” And Microsoft Azure is helping to ..read more